The 1950s and 1960s: A Period of Transformation for the Library

2021/06/29

Image: April 1961, the main entrance was opened to students. Students receiving entry passes by presenting their student IDs. The number of entrants was limited to maintain silence within the building. The issuance of entry passes at the reception continued until the establishment of the Information Center in April 1970. After that, entry was granted by presenting a student ID or a stack permit.

In the 1950s and 60s, an era when "Oka no Ue" was sung about as a place where "if you open the window, you can see the sea, and the breeze blows cheerfully," the office (now a cafe) located immediately to the right of the entrance of the brick Old University Library from the Meiji era where the author worked was a comfortable workplace, cool in summer and moderately warm with steam heating in winter.

There were two entrances: the main entrance on the first floor for faculty and staff, and the student entrance at the reception on the first basement floor, a few steps down to the left of the main entrance. The first-floor lobby was a quiet, deserted space. The marble statue of "Mama no Tekona," which I had heard rumors about, had been moved to the basement stacks due to damage from the war. Similarly, the stained glass at the stair landing had been damaged by fire, leaving only the sky visible through clear glass. However, once the construction of Tokyo Tower was completed, it happened to fit perfectly in the center of the glass wall, leading some to say it had become "like a framed painting."

Meanwhile, there was a time when the basement student entrance suddenly became a topic of conversation. It all began when the "Japan Library School" (now the Faculty of Letters, Library and Information Science Major) opened at the Juku in 1951 based on GHQ guidelines to train librarians, and the department library was placed to the left of the entrance (now the Keio Institute of Cultural and Linguistic Studies). Some students from the library school would enter through the convenient main entrance. This led to complaints from other students. To handle this issue, Department Head Gitler and Library Vice Principal Yanosuke Ito held discussions. The Vice Principal later told the author that consulting with Library Director Kentaro Nomura—who was his mentor from his student days and a firm believer that "there is a proper etiquette between teacher and student"—was "truly a difficult task."

However, times were changing rapidly. This acceleration was particularly noticeable around the completion of the Third Stack Room (autumn 1961). The main entrance was opened to students, a periodicals room and open stacks were newly established, and the library school library was moved to the West School Building, among other changes. Thanks to these improvements in user services, the number of student visitors increased visibly. Even as students began using the main entrance just like faculty and staff, no one objected anymore.

Fifty years after the library opened, that basement entrance—which Keio students were so familiar with and likely found inconvenient—was quietly closed, and few people today know the history behind it.

(Shigeru Morizono, former Administrative Director of Mita Media Center)